1

THE INTEGERS OF JAMES BOOTH

Thomas J. Osler
And
John Kennedy
Mathematics Department
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ 08028

Osler@rowan.edu

1. Introduction

In 1854, the Reverend James Booth published a little note [1], less than one page

long in which he proved that six digit integers of the form abcabc like 376376 or 459459

are all divisible by the numbers 7, 11 and 13. In this note we will repeat Booth’s original

demonstration and give a second proof that shows how to generalize Booth’s observation.

Let N ( p, n) denote the set of all positive integers with a sequence of p digits

repeated n times. Thus the number 321432143214 in which the sequence 3214 of length

4 is repeated 3 times is an element of the set N (4,3) . The numbers described by Booth

are from the set N (3, 2) .

2. Booth’s theorem and a generalization

We begin by giving Booth’s original proof in the following theorem.

Theorem 1: All numbers from the set N (3, 2) are divisible by 7, 11 and 13.

Proof: Consider dividing the number

abcabc = 100, 000a + 10, 000b + 1, 000c + 100a + 10b + c

by 7. Since 100,000 = 7x14285 + 5, 10,000 = 7x1428 + 4, 1,000 = 7x142 + 6, 100 = 7x14

+ 2, 10 = 7x1 + 3 and 1 = 7x0 + 1, the division of abcabc by 7 has the remainder

5a + 4b + 6c + 2a + 3b + c = 7 a + 7b + 7c .
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Thus abcabc is divisible by 7. In the same way we can show that this number is divisible

by 11 and 13 and the theorem is proved.

A more instructive proof of this theorem begins by observing that

1001 = 7 x 11 x 13. Since our number can be written as

abcabc = a 00a00 + 0b00b0 + 00c00c

= 100100a + 10010b + 1001c
= 1001(100a ) + 1001(10b) + 1001c

it is clear that it is divisible by 7, 11, and 13. This second proof now allows us to easily

generalize Theorem 1. Since the divisors of 1001 = 103 + 1 divide any number in N (3, 2)

we see that the proof of the following theorem is an easy extension of the above

argument.

Theorem 2: Any divisor of 10 p + 1 also divides all numbers in N ( p, 2) .

In the following table we list the divisors of 10 p + 1 for use with Theorem 2.

p Prime Divisors of p Prime Divisors of 10 + 1

p p Prime Divisors of 10 + 1
p

10 p + 1
1 11 11 11, 23, 4093, 8779 21 7, 11, 13, 127, 2689, 459691, 909091

2 101 12 73, 137, 99990001 22 89, 101, 1052788969, 1056689261

3 7, 11, 13 13 11, 859, 1058313049 23 11, 47, 139, 2531, 549797184491917

4 73, 137 14 29, 101, 281, 121499449 24 17, 5882353, 9999999900000001

5 11, 9091 15 7, 11, 13, 211, 241, 2161, 9091 25 11, 251, 5051, 9091, 78875943472201

6 101, 9901 16 353, 449, 641, 1409, 69857 26 101, 521, 1900381976777332243781

7 11, 909091 17 11, 103, 4013, 21993833369 27 7, 11, 13, 19, 52579, 70541929, 14175966169

8 17, 5882353 18 101, 9901, 999999000001 28 73, 137, 7841, 127522001020150503761

9 7, 11, 13, 19, 52579 19 11, 909090909090909091 29 11, 59, 154083204930662557781201849

10 101, 3541, 27961 20 73, 137, 1676321, 5964848081 30 61, 101, 3541, 9901, 27961, 4188901, 39526741
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From this table we see that 11 and 9091 divide 100001, and thus from Theorem 2 we

know that 11 and 9091 divide every number in N (5, 2) such as 1234512345 and

5402154021. (Check these on your calculator.)

It is also easy to see that you can concatenate two or more members of N (3, 2)

and the new number will also be divisible by 7, 11 and 13. This is because

abcabcdefdef = 1000000abcabc + defdef , and the divisibility is now clear. For example,

123123456456789789 is divisible by 7, 11 and 13. In general we have the following

theorem.

Theorem 3: Let two or more members of N ( p, 2) be concatenated together to form a

new number z. Then any divisor of 10 p + 1 also divides z.

3. A useful algebraic identity

In the above table we see that 11 divides 10 p + 1 whenever p is odd. Also notice

that 101 divides 10 p + 1 for p = 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, …. These are special cases of the

following important theorem.

Theorem 4: Let x be an integer (not equal to –1). Then x + 1 divides x p + 1 if p is odd.

Proof: By direct multiplication we see that

(1) ( x + 1) ( x p −1 − x p −2 + x p −3 − " − x + 1)

= x ( x p −1 − x p − 2 + x p −3 − " − x + 1) + ( x p −1 − x p − 2 + x p −3 − " − x + 1)

= x p − x p −1 + x p − 2 − " − x 2 + x + ( x p −1 − x p − 2 + x p −3 − " − x + 1)

= x p +1.

and thus the theorem is proved.

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With x = 10 in (1) we see why 11 divides 10 p + 1 for odd p, and with x = 100 we

see why 101 divides 102 p + 1 for odd p.

The following corollary follows at once.

Corollary: No integer of the form 10 p + 1 , where p is an odd integer greater than 1, is

prime.

Theorem 5: If y divides 10q + 1 , then it divides every number in N ( pq, 2) where p is

odd.

Proof: Let x = 10q . By Theorem 4, 10q + 1 divides 10 pq + 1 , where p is an odd integer

greater than 1), and thus y divides 10 pq + 1 from Theorem 2.

We can check Theorem 5 using the table. Notice that 37 divides 104 + 1 , and by

our theorem 37 should divide 104 p + 1 where p is odd. Thus with the exponents of ten

4x1 = 4, 4x3 = 12, 4x5 = 20 and 4x7 = 28 we that 37 is a divisor listed in the table.

Just as the number 1001 was fundamental in the examination of the divisibility

properties of numbers in the set N (3, 2) , the reader will have no trouble showing that the

number 1001001 governs such questions for numbers in the set N (3, 3) . With the help of

mathematical software, we can construct a table of the prime divisors of 102 p + 10 p + 1

for p =1, 2, 3, … so that the divisibility of numbers in N ( p , 3) can be explained. Further

extensions to N ( p , 4) , N ( p , 5) , … can be studied. This completes the presentation of

our extension of the numbers introduced by James Booth.

References

[1] Booth, James, On a property of numbers, Proceedings of the Royal Society of

London, 7(1854-1855), pp. 42-43.